Aichi D3A1 Val Aircraft

I am giving this kit 2 stars only because it is rather inaccurate and lacks any real detail. The kit is great, well at least for scratch builders and history buffs like myself. The decals are inaccurate, this plane was supposed to have been one that flew from the Akagi, Japan's Flagship carrier to take place in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is missing the thick red stripes on the tail and one that is supposed to be on the main fuselage. The bomb is supposed to be a 250 kg bomb, it is woefully small so I decided not to use it. There is absolutely no interior detail, no bomb port for the rear gunner/ radio operator, and no ventral VF loop antenna. The bomb trapeze is also not accurate, the type supplied with the kit would more or less be a design found on the German Stuka Dive bomber. I painted up the pilots & rear gunner in effort to add something to the shell of the interior. I decided not to use the bomb due to how small it is and the shape is not what the Japanese 250 kg bomb looked like. I ditched the kits bomb trapeze kit and completely scratch built my own based on the planes blue prints. I also used decals from a Dragon profipack kit of an Aichi Val. I used decals for EII-206, that aircraft was from an unknown Navy unit that was aboard the Zuikaku, one of Japans other carriers. The canopy doesn't have any real detail so it was hard to mask it, but it worked out. Since I have a profipack, I plan on buying a few more of these kits. I know I may sound like I did not enjoy this kit, but I actually did. I am simply pointing out the inaccuracies, but this is what is normal for an Airfix kit from the 60's. The one thing that Airfix nailed, was the shape. The Val, at least in my opinion is one of the most beautiful aircrafts ever designed. If you care about building an out of box accurate Val then there are options in 1/32 and 1/48 scale. There are literally no other options in 1/72, so I was glad to get this when it became available. Overall I would recommend this kit.